BRIEF: Nike Introduces The Kobe Prelude Pack

by Sandy Dover for BMF of Complex Media

It’s hard to believe that future Hall of Famer and Los Angeles Lakers superstar guard Kobe Bryant is coming up on his ninth name signature shoe with Nike. He’s going 18 years into his career in the NBA, and having played in some of the most iconic shoes that anyone could ever thinking of seeing and wearing, Nike is releasing the previous eight name signature shoes leading up to his Nike Kobe 9 being released in February.

(I say “name signature shoes”, because Kobe has worn two shoes before his Kobe signature series that were technically his shoes, but didn’t have his name attached to them in the Nike Air Zoom Huarache 2K4 and Air Zoom Huarache 2K5, but which were designed specifically for Kobe.)

To commemorate the occasion, the first eight Kobe sneakers, The Kobe Prelude Pack, will feature distinct designs that call back to Kobe’s accomplishments and achievements throughout the course of the history of those shoes. …

BRIEF: Nike Zoom (or Lunar?) Kobe 9 Debuts Tomorrow

by Sandy Dover for BMF of Complex Media

The great Los Angeles Lakers legendary guard Kobe Bryant has been felled by his Achilles injury (kind of an epic ironic symmetry, no?) and in a way has ceased to exist to some extent as a footwear wearer for the time being. Late releases of his Zoom KobeSystem 8 aside, the man’s feet have been shod in relatively meager attire. Well, that’s going to change soon.

As you can see above (courtesy of Heidi Burgett of Nike), on December 4 in Los Angeles, Kobe’s ninth name shoe is to debut. There have been reports and teasers, leading many to believe he’ll return to his former high-top glory to help protect his rehabilitated Achilles’ heel. As the post suggests, “The Ninth” could be proactive in what technology is most present in the new edition, as Kobe’s last few shoes have made both Zoom Air and Lunarlon a mutually-high priority. In any case, you have word from Nike and from us that something epic is on the horizon. …

FEATURE: Dwight Howard Looks to Reestablish His Game, Name in New adidas D Howard 4

By Sandy Dover

As featured by Yahoo!

By all accounts, Dwight Howard, former Orlando Magic wunderkind, Los Angeles Lakers defector, and current Houston Rockets star center, has had a promising, but loopy whirl in the signature shoe game. A longtime endorser and product pitchman for adidas, Howard has had, by most accounts, a very respectable shoe line. All have been capable performers, and most have been fairly successful. After spending his lone season with the Lakers in his underwhelming adipower Howard 3 and D Howard 3 Light shoes, the brand with the three stripes has given the former Superman 2.0 a new lease on his footwear life with the D Howard 4 (shown in full detail here).

Built on adidas’ new Crazyquick platform, which is actually formally the new Puremotion platform for adidas performance footwear, the DH4 is a strong shoe, at least aesthetically. To be frank, it’s the first shoe that Howard has really worn that makes sense for his game. The best center in the NBA for almost a full decade now (Pau Gasol and Tim Duncan are combination big men as power forwards/centers), Howard is powerful and big, but he’s also dexterous and fast; often shoes for players who play the post and are 6’10” and 260 lbs. are like combat boots, but the DH4 is anything but. …

FEATURE: TSL’s 5-On-5: Which Team Most Needs To Win A First-Round Series?

featuring Sandy Dover for The Shadow League

The Los Angeles Lakers, by far. Kobe Bryant’s gonna be out for a year; Dwight Howard is a free agent and still isn’t sure what he wants to do about staying or going; and Pau Gasol has been trampled upon like a tide of elephants running through a shallow pond. Not to mention, the team is facing heavy penalties for its payroll (which is terrible for the Buss family, because their wealth is solely based in the fiscal health of the team).

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FEATURE: TSL 5-On-5: Trade Season Has Started

featuring Sandy Dover for The Shadow League

Which team needs the most help? Is Paul George a star? COY debate and more.

Is Dwight Howard Man Enough To Remain A Laker?

by Sandy Dover for The Shadow League

Is the exchange rate for remaining a Laker too high for Howard? You can be the judge. You ever wonder whyhe has preferred the city of New York to Lakerland, USA? Look at the expectations. In The Empire State, no matter what the team, Howard could be king of the land just making the Playoffs; after all, with a 40-year championship drought in play between the five boroughs , just being in the discussion is good enough. But in The City of Angels? Where championships have become commonplace within the last three decades? Winning big is the answer, a thirst that if left unchecked, can become insatiable, but we haven’t seen that thirst.

Where’s his pride? Not so much as a Laker (yet), but his willingness to do what it takes to preserve his on-court constitution? None of us can judge what the man is feeling like. It’s widely known Howard is playing as a weaker man, physically, but there are no excuses when you put your butt out there on that court, right?

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FEATURE: TSL’s 5-on-5: Coaches and Owners, Please Have Several Seats

featuring Sandy Dover for The Shadow League

Mike D’Antoni is incompetent and maybe more accurately, an ignoramus. He’s a lemons-to-lemonade man. Nobody remembers his schemes in Denver, and people are already getting fuzzy about New York, but anyone with eyes in their skull can see that Kobe Bryant hasn’t been a lockdown defender in years. And D’anny’s undoing in Los Angeles is imminent, if he continues stubbornly with poor stratagem.

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FEATURE: The NBA Christmas BIG COLOR Uniforms

By Sandy Dover for Baller Mind Frame

Photo courtesy of adidas America

As if NBA Commissioner David Stern isn’t already a mastermind at marketing his players (just look at NBA Cares and their myriad commercials), he’s begun to make Christmas an actual aesthetic holidays for players and fans. After slowly distinguishing the Christmas Day games from others with embroidered snowflakes behind the NBA logo on the players’ jerseys, he’s tried out something new entirely that works beautifully – the festive BIG COLOR uniforms.

They are exactly that, as teams that were fortunate enough to play on Christmas were issued uniforms that highlighted one dominant color of their own color schemes, major and minor colors included. All teams took on said color that was tinted just so to differentiate the uniforms from their regular season unis. 10 teams played and participated, so let’s take a look at who really did it big and looked great doing it, and the remaining others who could’ve used a better hue to play in – Christmas’ Fortunate and Less Fortunate List.

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Feature: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Shouldn’t Want a Statue

by Sandy Dover for The Shadow League

It remains to be seen whether the Busses are as kind about executives and coaches as they are about their players, but that’s beside the point. If Abdul-Jabbar had an issue with the Lakers’ perceived mistreatment toward him concerning his title positions with the team, then he could’ve been more direct, but complaining over not receiving a statue seemed a bit like a king complaining that his chalice handler wasn’t bringing him his wine in time.

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Feature: TSL’s 5-On-5 – But Can He Coach, Though?

Featuring Sandy Dover by The Shadow League

Jim Buss is an ignoramus and a cretin. He was the one that signed off on (Mike) Brown’s use of the Princeton offense, and he was the one that signed off on Brown’s hiring. If Buss had any sense at all, Brown wouldn’t have been hired in the first place – Brown was a bad fit, but not a bad coach.

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